RED LAKE, Minnesota (AP) — More than 100 people stranded while fishing on an ice chunk that broke free on a Minnesota lake were rescued Friday night.
The anglers were stuck on an ice floe in the southeastern area of Upper Red Lake in Beltrami County — about 200 miles northwest of the Twin Cities — when it broke loose from the shoreline.
An emergency call shortly before 5 p.m. said the people were stranded with more than 30 feet separating them from shore, according to a statement by the Beltrami County Sheriff’s Office.
Before first responders arrived, bystanders tried to take some of the people off by canoe and four fell into the water, the sheriff’s office said.
They were brought back to the ice floe to warm in a fishing shelter, officials from the sheriff’s office said, adding that nobody else had fallen into the water during ordeal.
It took about 2 1/2 hours to finally evacuate 122 people from the ice floe, and no injuries were reported, according to the sheriff’s office.
"Tony fell in," said Tiffany Lenz.
"Yeah, I did," Tony Nelson confirmed.
"My dad jumped in after him to try to save him," continued Lenz. "Everybody there, they all just worked together to try to get Tony and my dad out of the water."
State officials have been warning people to be wary of ice that is unusually thin for this time of the winter.
"Hopefully people will see this and just wait a little bit longer before they go out so that they are not putting themselves and all the first responders' lives at risk," said Nicole Biagi of the Minnesota DNR.
The stranding took place a day after a passenger died when a commercial transport vehicle crashed through the ice on Lake of the Woods.
Tracked vehicles, locally dubbed “bombers,” are used to take customers to and from ice fishing locations away from shore.